


Making Miles

by NOT_TOWA_WAKASA



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-20 17:54:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15539757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NOT_TOWA_WAKASA/pseuds/NOT_TOWA_WAKASA
Summary: The Naegi siblings have some guests over for dinner. Written for the 2018 Togafuka Gift Exchange.





	Making Miles

Touko is far from acclimated to the feeling of sharing a bed with another person, and so when she wakes up to an empty bed, she does not register it as strange. She would have been right to, though, considering it was not her bed that she had slept in.

“Get up. You’ve had twenty-three minutes.”

Her eyes split wide as if she’s been doused in cold water, and a primal noise erupts from the back of her throat. She rips the blanket off of her head as she shoots into a sitting position. Byakuya’s voice is lower in the early morning, but no less clear and precise, lacking any hint of lethargy. Touko can barely make out his expression through her own bleary vision, but his posture is unmistakable.

Squinting, she rubs some of the crust from her eyes and wets her dry lips. Byakuya’s arms uncross, and one reaches for the nightstand beside the bed. When he holds something out to her, it takes a moment for Touko to realize it’s her glasses.

“O-oh,” she says, croaky, and takes it from him and places it over the ridge of her nose. His blurry form coalesces into stark clarity, a hundred different fine details from the stray hairs tucked under the frame of his glasses to his long eyelashes lining his half-lidded eyes to the unbuttoned slot at the top of his dress shirt all materialize at once. She clears her throat. “Thank you.”

Byakuya’s own lips press together. After a moment, “The coffee is still warm.”

She’s grateful. At work, it’s typically Touko who makes coffee for Byakuya, but they both consume an unholy amount of it on a daily basis. The coffee’s temperature may have cooled, but it was still burnt, and Touko compensates by pouring creamer into the mug until the carton is empty and the liquid inside is as white as alabaster.

Aside from the small table where Touko sits with her drink, Byakuya stands at the stove working on what smells like a western breakfast.

Touko smiles into the rim of her mug, a pleasant warmth filling her chest different from the one that fills her stomach. The mug is half-empty when Byakuya places two plates and two sets of utensils on the table, one in front of her and the other at the nearest seat rather than the one across from her. She eyes the set of eggs on her plate, one with the yolk intact and the other not, both with edges burnt like the contents of her drink.

“I-it smells really good, Byakuya-sama,” she sighs, bubbly. “I feel honored… Getting to eat food made by your hands…”

Byakuya pulls out his seat before sitting down. “Thanks are unnecessary. This is my home, which makes me your host.”

He rebuked her, but her smile widens. “My host…” Touko pokes her fork into a sausage on her plate, which breaks into two when she tries to lift it. She picks up one of the crumbly halves with her fingers and pops it into her mouth. “I don’t eat complete breakfast meals often…” she says, covering her mouth as she chews.

“You should,” he replies, as he cuts one of his eggs into pieces.

“I know.” She made many meals for and with Komaru when they were stationed in Towa City, but she still lacks the energy in the morning to prepare something if she’s the only one that’s going to be eating it. “M-maybe…” her mouth splits into a green smile, “I-I would, if I could eat your cooking more often…”

Byakuya looks at her out of the corner of his eye. When he replies, it’s after his mouth is hidden behind the rim of an empty mug. “We’ll see.”

They eat the remainder of their breakfast wordlessly. Byakuya focuses on his plate, mostly, as Touko watches him, but sometimes he will look back at her as he chews. There’s little examination in his glimpses at her, no judgment, and no hesitance in the meeting of their eyes. This isn’t routine, but these days they can spend the night together and Byakuya won’t feel compelled to emotionally hide himself from her the morning after. When Touko’s hand rests on the table, Byakuya’s hand eventually comes to rest on top of it.

She has to leave soon, though, as they are both busy people. Touko tells him this, and he says “hmm,” and gets out of his seat and takes both of their dishes. She doesn’t leave immediately, though, and instead waits while Byakuya scrubs away the excess food off their plates and forks, soaps and rinses them, dries and puts them away.

“Byakuya?” she asks, this time without the honorific.

He hums again in response, and rinses and dries his own hands before approaching her where she’s waited. Their eyes meet again, Touko looking up at him and him looking down at her. Byakuya’s wrinkled hands come to wrap around her waist and pull her close.

She tilts her head up and closes her eyes, but Byakuya’s lips only press against her forehead. “Touko,” he says in return, and her heart quivers in her chest.

* * *

 

The smell of spices and meat permeate the Naegis’ kitchen, just as the sound of scraping and cutting and sizzling becomes background noise to casual conversation. It’s an aroma and atmosphere Touko has come to appreciate as familiar, and as she and Komaru work through the motions in their established roles and turns, her mind sinks away from the harsh buzzing and stress of work.

Before, Touko would never have expected to find being with other people relaxing.

"Touko-chan, does this look okay?”

Touko looks over. The pot Komaru looms over and stirs is filled with chopped potatoes, carrots, apples, and fish, all simmering in chicken stock.

“I would call it done… I don’t like it when they’re too soft.”

Komaru tilts her head, continuing to stir the pot. “I’m not sure… You always make them really hard…”

“W-why did you ask if you were going to second guess me?!”

Komaru hums thoughtfully. With a fork, she tries poking one of the potato cubes. Instead of being speared, it gets pushed along the side of the pot. “A minute longer, I think. It won’t get mushy, don’t worry.”

Curry was something they both had a taste for, they’d discovered back in Towa City, and whenever they had the ingredients for it they could agree upon it easily. That circumstance was rare, though, and normally they’d make their meals with what they could find.

Touko had learned when she was younger how to make meals with sparse ingredients, which became useful in Towa City when she and Komaru had to make do with what they could scavenge. But sometimes, if they were lucky, they would come across something that could make for more than just a bare meal. After the battle in Towa Tower, Touko and Komaru had occasional bouts of free time in between missions, and when the stars aligned they’d use it to make nicer meals for themselves.

The food didn’t always turn out, but they both enjoyed it, and gradually they improved. During their regular communications with Future Foundation, Komaru often told Makoto what they last made, which - again, when Touko and Komaru were lucky - resulted in more than just rations and medical supplies being sent in their next supply drop.

The pot scrapes against the counter as Komaru pulls the it off the heat. “It already smells good,” says Makoto, who had been standing against the sink mostly idle since everything that needed to be cut up had been taken care of. He smiles. “Thanks for joining us for dinner, Fukawa-san.”

Touko smiles back, a bit smugly. “O-of course. I have a short weekend this week, so I want to make the most of it before I go back to work.”

Makoto scratches the back of his neck. “We’re honored.”

“Don’t be so bashful, niichan. We’re just eating dinner together, and Touko-chan and I used to do that every night. You’ll make her feel awkward.”

“H-hey, don’t put words in my mouth…” mumbles Touko.

Komaru rolls her shoulders, and puts the wooden spoon she was stirring with on a towel to avoid getting broth on the counter. She turns to the den of ingredients they’d gathered and picks out what she needs to finish make the roux. There’s flour, and she knows that there’s butter in the fridge, but there’s one ingredient she can’t find in the pile.

“Touko-chan, did you take the ginger already?”

She gets a confused look in return. “Why would I need that?”

Komaru lets go of the flour and moves to the cupboard where she and Makoto keep their spices. When it’s not there, she looks through some of the other cupboards because she knows she and Makoto aren’t exactly on top of keeping their kitchen organized. It’s not in any of them, either.

“What are you looking for?” Makoto asks.

Komaru scratches her neck as she closes the compartments. “Eh… do we really need ginger for this?”

Touko almost bites her nail before she stops herself. “I don’t -”

“I’ll get it,” Makoto interrupts enthusiastically. ”The store isn’t that far away, and I’m not really contributing right now, so it’s no problem.”

There’s a pensive look on Touko’s face, but Komaru doesn’t wait to be relieved. “Thanks, niichan! I’ll start on the roux now, so you better hurry!”

Makoto laughs nervously as he heads towards the door, making a detour for his coat on his way out. With a put-upon sigh of relief, Komaru smiles and goes digging for a sauce pan.

“H-he’s so obedient,” Touko says, once he’s out of earshot, or she figures he is, “… l-like a dog…”

Komaru grunts as she rises to her feet with her pan. “I… wouldn’t go that far…” She puts the pan over the heat, lowering one of the nobs before she leaves it to grab butter from the fridge. “I’m almost an adult now, but he’s still the older brother, so he’s really the one that’s supposed to be making dinners and stuff. Even if he’s not, he still wants to be the responsible one.”

Touko didn’t grow up with any siblings, older or younger. Her parents rarely looked after her, and were more often a hindrance than people she could rely on. Even if she understood Komaru and Makoto’s relationship, she didn’t have any experiences of her own to relate it to.

Unless Touko counted Komaru, which sometimes, she did.

The sound of the door opening could easily be heard from the kitchen in their small apartment, but Touko wouldn’t have noticed it if it wasn’t followed by Makoto’s voice. “Ah, Togami-kun?”

It’s followed by Komaru’s, who’s head instantly turns. “Togami-san?!”

And who was followed again by a much less surprised “Byakuya-sama!”

A knife clinks against the counter as Touko darts out of the kitchen and towards the door. Komaru is extremely confused, and she quickly spreads butter to sizzle over the pan before stepping away. At the door, Byakuya peels a tan jacket off of his shoulders as he makes what looks to be small talk with Makoto, who smiles amiably while rubbing the back of his neck.

Though Komaru knew he and Byakuya were teammates at work and that he and Touko were becoming closer (something her friend feverishly reiterated), she still knows the man as the mysterious, cold-mannered agent of the Future Foundation. Seeing him in her home hanging his coat on her apartment’s coat rack was like something out of a fever dream.

His eyes shifts away from her brother and towards Touko as she approaches him, wringing her hands seemingly to restrain herself. Komaru could see the corners of his lips twitch - inward or outward, she couldn’t make out.

“I’m so glad you could make it,” Touko happily sighs.

“I don’t miss appointments.”

The cold response makes Komaru cringe. She looks between the three of them. “I didn’t know he was coming over,” she calls out.

Makoto’s wide eyes dart over to her. “Oh! That’s my bad, ha… we talked about it at work - or, Fukawa-san brought it up, but I thought it sounded good. Togami-kun and I don’t meet often outside of work, so I was really surprised he agreed to come.” His brows furrow apologetically. “I didn’t think to give you a heads up, ah… sorry.”

Even if it was on accident, being left out of the loop still annoyed Komaru. It would be rude to object now, of course, so she doesn’t.

After an _I’ll be right back_ , Makoto leaves for the store. Touko and Byakuya talk by the door for a while longer, standing almost awkwardly close to each other. Komaru remembers the pan she left on the stove and heads back, but it’s another two minutes before she’s joined by a very rejuvenated Touko.

The corners of her mouth stretch into a wide, tightly-closed smile. Touko’s eyes are clearly not trained on the food, instead glazed over as one hand drapes over the edge of the counter and the other grips pointlessly at a utensil. What’s on her mind is obvious to Komaru, but even though she’s watched Touko think and talk about Byakuya hundreds of times since they first met, it’s never looked exactly like this.

Byakuya situates himself a few feet away from them, near the sink.

He doesn’t seem to plan on striking up a conversation anytime soon.

Komaru looks away. “Touko-chan,” she starts, working a smile onto her face. “How is that… project you were talking about going?”

The delirious smile on Touko’s face snaps into something more personable. “W-what project?”

“You know, the one with, um… you were talking about it earlier, it had…”

Touko catches on to what Komaru’s referring to, but her eyebrows knit together. “Were you listening to me or weren’t you?”

“I was!” Komaru insists. “I was, but you brought up so many different things that I’m not really sure how I could refer to it… it’s not like it had a name.”

For a moment, Touko chews on her lip. It’s easy for her to assume when someone brings up her interests that they’re going to make fun of her, or are just being formal, but she’s resolved herself to trust in Komaru’s intentions. “I’m… still working on it. I’m at the writing stage, b-because I prefer to put things in motion rather than wait on a detailed plan, but the more I think about my outline the more unsure I am of it… I’ll probably have to re-write it all later.”

Komaru nods. “You write fast though, don’t you?”

“Y-yeah, on good days…” The words leave a bitter look on her face. “But I don’t have as much time to write as I used to.”

In contrast, Komaru smiles. “It’s your passion, right? Even though you have such an important job, you still make time to write. I think that’s really admirable.”

“Well…” Touko’s lips press into a tight line. “As long as I get inspired, I-I’ll write. I can’t… not do it.”

That part doesn’t leave as sour a look on her face. Komaru nods understandingly.

Byakuya speaks up from behind them. “I recall that you’d lost your inspiration.”

His choice of words seemed almost accusatory, but his tone bellied something more like passive interest. They both turn their heads. "Ah,” Touko sounds. Her eyes widen as she regards Byakuya, before hooding over. “F-for a while, I did… I told you about the I-novel that I shared with Naegi-kun, but I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to continue writing romance novels.”

Byakuya’s face is passive, merely making a single nod, but after a moment he doesn’t prod her to elaborate. Komaru fills the air. “What changed?”

“Well,” she continues, this time smiling, “some… _things_ happened, and I tried experimenting some more… before, when I first started writing, my inspiration came from me wanting to fill holes in my life. When I was young, I could create stories where I expressed some of my desires, and then h-have those desires fulfilled, or...”

Even though she’s smiling, there’s still an anxiety in her voice, and her fingers link and unlink habitually. Her eyes dart between Byakuya and Komaru, and after a moment, she frowns.

“Don’t look at me like I’m some sort of gross creep… I-it’s just how I made it through things back then. B-but I don’t really get inspiration that way anymore. Or, I don’t… need to. Instead of trying to use writing just to get catharsis, I have to create things that are… new. Draw from the world around me instead of just myself. There’s still s-some wish fulfillment, but… I have to do more.”

Her fingers tie together and squeeze.

“That sounded dumb,” she says.

“It does not,” Byakuya says immediately. “Objectively, you are an accomplished writer. When faced with a creative roadblock, you chose to innovate rather than stagnate and wither.”

Like a spell, Touko’s hesitance is immediately lifted. She smiles.

The three of them continue to talk over the sound of scraping and stirring and whirring fans. Touko goes into more detail about her book, the setting she’s imagined so far and how it connects to the stories core themes - all sounding incredibly dark to Komaru, but she’s told by Touko that she never writes anything pointlessly bleak. Komaru talks about school, the friends she’s been able to make despite the circumstances - things the younger girl thought would seem utterly banal to a former billionaire heir like Byakuya, so she’s surprised when he makes occasional comments.

He’s still cold, but seeing Byakuya actually… _talk_ \- about something other than Future Foundation work - is new to Komaru.

With a whoosh of air that could be heard from the kitchen, Makoto returns with a grocery bag bearing a single item. Touko and Komaru finish preparing the curry, and with Makoto’s help they set the table with four sets of plates and utensils surrounding a pot of curry and a pot of rice, as well as some side dishes Touko had made. A warm collage of smells filled the room, no single ingredient standing out from the source.

The dinner atmosphere Komaru and Makoto were used to was tempered somewhat by the presence of their two guests. Komaru noticed that Makoto ate a bit slower when he was among people other than just family - a long time ago, back when that counted for more than just her. Similarly, Touko took much more care with the way she ate, though that might have had less to do with either of the Naegi siblings.

Conforming seamlessly with Komaru’s impression of him, Byakuya eats meticulously, his posture stiffly upright. She glances at him occasionally as he eats, but even though he takes so much time with his food, he hardly reacts to it at all.

Touko covers her mouth as she chews, and for a while longer when she speaks. “D-do… you like it?”

“It tastes really good,” Makoto says. “You two did a really god job.”

Touko hadn’t been looking at Makoto.

Byakuya swallows cleanly before he speaks. “I’ve tasted your cooking before,” he replies, “though, not _yours_ , I suppose,” this time regarding Komaru.

He spoke so seriously. Komaru feels like laughing, but it would have come out just as stiff as Byakuya’s words. Touko. though looks like she’s on the edge of her seat. Just watching her makes Komaru feel a little nervous.

“It’s adequate. I prefer this to the constant ordering out at work.”

The tension in Touko’s face snaps instantly into an eruption of giggles, her clinging hands going back to rowing her utensil against the rice on her plate. “M-meals made like this are so much better t-than the greasy slop they make at chains…”

“We only eat it so much of it because Hagakure-san keeps ordering out,” Makoto points out.

“And you enable him by paying for his cut whenever he insists that he left his wallet in some inconvenient crevice,” Togami says. “Which has been every time, by the way. You are easily deceived.”

Komaru’s mouth makes an ‘o’, while Touko smirks. Makoto doesn’t look particularly taken aback by Byakuya’s insinuation, instead smiling meekly and rubbing the back of his neck.

“Wow,” Komaru says, stuffing a bit of rice into her mouth. She chews quickly and then swallows. “You really need to stand up for yourself, niichan.”

“Komaru,” Makoto laughs.

Even if Komaru hadn’t known what Byakuya and her brother had gone through together, she would still be able to tell just by watching them that Makoto had a lot of experience dealing with Byakuya’s personality, and that Byakuya afforded him in turn more humor than she had received as a relative stranger. Not that he had been _outright_ mean to her, but around his friends, he seemed… lighter. Comparatively.

“So, um,” Komaru starts, rearranging bits of rice and meat on her plate as she focuses on the space just to the right of Togami’s eyes. “If you don’t mind me asking, how did you and Touko-chan get together?”

Byakuya blinks at her, halting mid-chew.

Komaru tries to keep a affable smile, but the way it pinches at her cheeks tells her it comes across as forced. “I mean, Touko-chan mentions you a lot whenever we get together, but it’s a little, uhm, flowery? And you and I didn’t talk one-on-one a lot while we were in Towa City, so I might not have a very clear impression of you... ha.”

To Byakuya’s side, Touko cringes. “Byakuya is a very p-private person, he doesn’t -”

“I can speak for myself,” he interrupts.

Promptly, Touko closes her mouth. Her fingers quickly find each other and lock into place. Komaru thinks to herself that he could have been gentler.

“… Fukawa was correct,” he says carefully. He maintains strict eye contact, as if he were giving Komaru a job interview. “The details of our relationship are private, as they concern only us.”

It occurs to Komaru that he wasn’t even using her first name. _Fukawa_ was how he had always referred to her, only marginally more familiar than being called _Naegi’s sister_ , so she was used to it - but they were _dating_.

“However.” He regards her seriously. “Even if our relationship is a private one, it is still a relationship, and that is not private.”

Makoto’s utensil clinks against his plate. “Togami-kun,” he trails off.

“Nothing that stays between us is hidden because I think it is a threat. I am not… _ashamed_ of her.”

“No one is saying you’re ashamed, Togami-kun,” Makoto says.

He faces Makoto only to turn up his nose. “You didn’t have to. Someone else did.”

Makoto blinks. “Who?”

“It doesn’t matter who she is, what’s important is -”

“It wasn’t Asahina-chan, was it?”

Byakuya pulls a face.

“… Well,” Makoto scratches his jaw, “I can see why she might be… concerned…”

“What’s important,” Byakuya continues forcefully, “is that our relationship is not a point of weakness. Anyone who assumes as such is severely underestimating me. Rather, for me to hide my… _relationship_ , would itself be a display of weakness.”

Touko stares at her lap, her head dipping down far enough to hide most of her face. One of her hands clings to a utensil, held frozen over her plate, the other trailing off at a slight angle to her side towards Byakuya. Komaru can tell that this wasn’t the first time Touko had heard this from him.

“You still didn’t, um, explain how you got together,” Komaru points out.

“Oh.” Byakuya lips contort, and he takes a sip from an empty glass. “Hm. That detail is private.”

Komaru scratches her chin. “Really? I really doubt it’s _that_ strange…”

“I didn’t say it was - _strange_ ,” replies Byakuya, firmly.

Touko looks up. “Would it… you mind if I told it?” Although the tone of her voice is demure, her lips curl into a smile as she speaks.

“No,” he says immediately. There’s a pause, during which Komaru swears she can see Byakuya’s face getting redder. He swallows. “No. I will tell the story,” he corrects.

Touko’s eyes flicker away. Komaru notices Byakuya’s arm shifting just slightly.

* * *

 

The sink’s faucet hisses on and off periodically, punctuated by the sound of scrubbing and scraping. Soapy suds cling to the rim of the sink, as does water soak the sleeves of Makoto’s shirt from before he’d thought to roll them up to his elbow.

It was late into the night, now, and everything that they could have talked about had already been said, so Makoto fills the silence with intermittent humming. Makoto rinses the plates, utensils, and pots, and Komaru dries and puts them away. This is how they have always worked, mostly because Komaru thought drying was easier than washing.

From the window above their sink, Komaru can make out the ground level outside their apartment. The angle from where she stands puts a line of street lamps just within her view, and her eyes flicker to and from it as she mindlessly dries off everything Makoto hands her.

Beneath one of the lights, two figures stand together, one short and one tall, and for a long time they just stay like that. From this distance, Komaru can’t tell if they’re talking or not.

One rocks on the heels of their feet and fiddles with their fingers. There are no buses running at this hour, so they have to be talking.

“I’ll check in with you next time,” Makoto says, without looking at her.

“It’s okay,” replies Komaru. “I mean, do that, but I’m not annoyed or anything.”

The taller one places their hand on the other’s shoulder, and the shorter one stops fidgeting. A moment later, there’s another hand, this time placed lower, and they are pulled into an embrace. For a while, they’re frozen in place like that.

“That’s good,” Makoto says, and hands Komaru the pot she made the rice in.

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt for this story was 'Touko being loved + appreciated by Togami and introducing him to Komaru'. Komaru technically meets Byakuya before she meets Touko, and has a lot of opportunities to talk with him when she’s in Towa City, so I was a bit liberal in interpreting the prompt.


End file.
